Focus: Microfinance Specialist
Joan has fifteen years of experience in international development, with a specialty in microfinance. She received her Master of Science degree in Development Management in 1986 from The American University in Washington , D.C.

She began her career with FINCA in El Salvador in 1990, working with John Hatch, President and Founder of FINCA, to create one of the first microfinance institutions in that country. That MFI, the Centro de Apoyo a la Microempresa, is still providing microfinance loans to thousands of poor women and changing their lives. She also worked with Catholic Relief Services in El Salvador , training a number of local partners in microfinance. Some of these partners have merged in the financial company Enlace, which currently reaches 13,000 microfinance clients.

Subsequently she became the supervisor of a group lending program in southern Viet Nam , a program that supported farmers, livestock producers, and microentrepreneurs with microloans. After Viet Nam , she became the supervisor of a program that provided small business loans to Palestinians in the West Bank for asset acquisition and working capital. In 1998, she became an independent consultant, and has worked with such organizations as UNCDF, the African Development Bank, the InterAmerican Development Bank, USAID, governments, NGOs, and others.

Her consulting work targets noncommercial and transforming institutions, including microfinance, small business, and rural finance institutions, as well as cooperatives and credit unions. Her skills include training and technical assistance, financial analysis, portfolio management, product development, the environmental impact of credit, management information systems, and monitoring and evaluation. She works in English, Spanish, and French.

In 2002, the year of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Joan joined with her two colleagues in creating an initiative aimed at promoting the positive environmental impact of microenterprise, using microfinance as a tool. Green Microfinance is the result.